Negotiations collapse in teachers' dispute; both sides point fingers

ROB SHAW, Vancouver Sun06.17.2014

BCTF president Jim Iker offers encouragement to local teachers outside Delta Secondary School on Tuesday before addressing the media.Sandor Gyarmati
/ Delta Optimist

A full-scale strike is "imminent," BC Teachers' Federation president Jim Iker announced Monday, after weekend negotiations failed to yield a deal. Iker said the two sides will not be meeting today.Ben Nelms
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Education Minister Peter Fassbender, speaking at the BC Public School Employers Association offices, said the offer includes movement on wages as well as class size and composition issues,and he is hopeful the BCTF will respond.JONATHAN HAYWARD
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Great to see MLA @HolmanGary out to support #BCTeachers! #BCNDP #bced@kimmanton
/ Twitter

Teachers rally in support of public education at the Vancouver Art Gallery #bctf #bced @peterongilford@lisapacheco
/ Twitter

Young students joined their teachers and parents in protest outside the offices of the B.C. Public School Employers' Association (on West Broadway) in Vancouver on June 10, 2014. The weekend's negotiations between the government and B.C. Teachers federation ended without a settlement, although the province did table a new comprehensive offer.Mark van Manen
/ PNG

British Columbia Teachers' Federation President Jim Iker announces a full-scale strike for school teachers is set for Tuesday, June 17 during a press conference in Vancouver on Thursday June 12, 2014.Ben Nelms
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

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VICTORIA — Schools are expected to remain closed throughout the province Tuesday after last-minute contract negotiations between teachers and the provincial government collapsed into a bitter war of words and a full-scale strike.

Both sides held duelling news conferences Monday, blaming each other for misrepresenting their contract proposals and walking away from the bargaining table.

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation said its almost 41,000 members will walk off the job indefinitely, potentially ending the school year prematurely for B.C. students. Provincial exams for senior secondary students must still be held and marked as an essential service.

Schools were closed Monday for a study session the BCTF said was necessary to allow teachers to review the bargaining situation.

The strike comes despite weekend negotiations that saw some movement on teacher salaries but left the two sides far apart on how to address class size and composition issues that have been the subject of a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling.

No talks were scheduled for Monday evening, and both sides said they were waiting on the other to resume negotiations.

BCTF president Jim Iker accused the government bargaining team of stonewalling progress to avert a strike. Education Minister Peter Fassbender warned the teachers that the government’s latest offer is “about as good as it’s going to get.”

Premier Christy Clark urged all sides back to the table.

“It’s been slow, but we’ve seen progress every time the BCTF has come back to the table,” she said. “I had hoped we’d be able to get to an agreement over the weekend, but perhaps even over the next few days, I don’t know.”

Iker said the government wasted a chance to strike a deal, after teachers lowered their wage demands to eight per cent over five years, from 9.75 per cent, and scrapped cost-of-living increases.

“It shows a willingness to get a deal, to be reasonable,” said Iker.

The government is offering seven per cent over six years. Chief negotiator Peter Cameron said when benefits and other compensation are factored into the wages, teachers are still asking for more than double what other major public sector unions have settled for in recent months.

“I regret that we’re in the position today that instead of finding some way to get to an end peace, where we can look forward to some stability and harmony of the relationship, we are here exchanging accusations,” said Cameron.

Iker accused the province of rolling back its wage offer by 0.25 per cent, something Cameron sharply denied as “completely wrong.”

However, wages don’t appear to be the major sticking point.

The two sides are far apart on signing bonuses — the BCTF wants $5,000 per teacher, the government has offered $1,200 if a deal is struck before June 30.

The BCTF’s bonus amount would cost $150 million, the government estimated.

Both sides continue to disagree on how to address a B.C. Supreme Court decision from earlier this year that ruled class-size limits and composition rules set in 2002 were stripped illegally.

The BCTF proposed a class size and composition fund to hire more teachers and improve learning conditions, but the government balked. Cameron said it’s difficult to agree to a proposal that has no cost associated, and that the government does not generally believe the class size formulas proposed by the BCTF will improve learning conditions.

The BCTF also pitched a “retroactive grievances” fund — again without a cost estimate — that would pay for improvements in preparation time, benefits and other working conditions in exchange for the union dropping potentially thousands of retroactive grievances on broken class-size limits that were sparked by the court ruling.

Late Monday, Victoria’s bargaining agent, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, announced it would cost government $2.04 billion to meet all the BCTF’s demands on compensation and class sizes issues.

The government is prepared to negotiate all summer if necessary, said Fassbender. And the province could also lift its partial lockout notice to allow summer school to proceed.

Teachers voted 89 per cent in early March in favour of the limited job action, after more than a year of stalled contract negotiations. Their pay was cut 10 per cent in May after the government instituted a partial lockout.

The province will save approximately $60 million in salaries and other costs for each week of a teacher strike.

Government negotiators would not say how it intends to spend that money, along with other savings accumulated through recent rotating strikes.

• a six-year term (July 1, 2013 — June 30, 2019) with an optional seven-year term (expiry June 30, 2020.

• $1,200 signing bonus per full-time teacher if agreement reached by June 30, 2014, prorated for teachers who work less than full-time or who started during the school year.

• wage increases of seven per cent over six years, plus an additional 1.5 per cent for an optional seventh year.

CLASS SIZE AND COMPOSITION

BCTF

• proposed class size and composition fund to be used to hire more teachers and improve learning conditions in local districts. No value was given for the fund.

• a retroactive grievances fund, which is money to improve working conditions, preparation time, teacher benefit improvements. In exchange, the BCTF would drop hundreds of potential retroactive grievances on class size and composition. No amount was given for that fund either.

BCPSEA

• The $75-million Learning Improvement Fund moved into the collective agreement to address issues of class size and composition.

• A joint fact-finding committee to gather better information on how to spend the Learning Improvement Fund.

• Class sizes currently contained in the School Act to be included in the collective agreement. That means class size caps currently in law would be included in the contract with teachers. Current caps in place state that there are no more than 22 students in kindergarten, 24 for Grades 1 to 3, and 30 for Grades 4 to 12 (with some exemptions for some types of classes).

• The government proposes that either side can terminate the contract and renegotiate its terms, after future court decisions and appeals on class size and composition issues. The province says it’s a way to put contentious issues aside until court rulings.

BENEFITS

BCTF

• Top-ups and increases to teacher benefits, including extended health coverage on fertility, vision and massage services, as well as a 100-per-cent salary top-up for pregnancy leave.

• Increases to professional development funding, including a recruitment and retention allowance.

• Increases to preparation time for elementary and secondary teachers, at full discretion of teacher, with similar prep time for teachers on call.

BCPSEA

Negotiable, subject to the residual compensation allocation (a collaborative process to allocate the remaining $11 million from the total compensation package).

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Negotiations collapse in teachers' dispute; both sides point fingers

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